FIU begins its Conference USA Championship play Wednesday afternoon, when the Panthers take on UTEP in round one of the single-elimination opening day, starting at 3:30 p.m. Eastern. The game, the second of the day, takes place at Lovelace Stadium, hosted by the University of North Texas.
                                     
By virtue of their three-game weekend sweep of Middle Tennessee last weekend, the Panthers finished 12-12 in league games and took a tournament spot by finishing in the top three in the East Division of the league standings. Three teams from each division automatically earned a spot, while the next two best teams by league record, regardless of division affiliation, received Wild Card selections. The eight teams were then reseeded by overall record to determine the tournament seeding.
 
FIU was seventh by record, 29-26 overall, and will face the sixth-seeded UTEP team, which finished at 22-30, 13-10 in C-USA. The winner faces third-seeded Southern Miss in day one's single-elimination format, in the nightcap at 8:30 p.m. The survivor among those three teams will face second-seeded UAB, the winner of the West Division, on day two, which begins the double-elimination part of the bracket. The title game of the tournament will be Saturday, May 14, with a winner-take-all 1 p.m. Eastern televised game on CBS Sports Network to earn the automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament. The other side of the bracket sees eighth-seeded UTSA facing off against the No. 5 seed, Marshall, on Wednesday at 1 p.m. Eastern. That winner takes on four-seed Louisiana Tech at 6 p.m. The survivor advances to top-seeded Florida Atlantic at 3 p.m. Thursday in the double-elimination segment.
 
FIU was swept at home by UTEP in the last weekend of March. The UTEP doubleheader saw the Panthers lose a pair of one-run games, 2-1 and 7-6, while the Sunday finale was won by the Miners, 6-4. FIU led in all three games in the series. Freshman Jackie Schoff (Bradenton, Florida / Lakewood Ranch HS) led the Panthers with seven hits in the series, though the Panthers were out hit .337 to .322 in the three-game set. One of junior Stephanie Texeira's (Miami, Florida / Gulliver Prep) league-leading 13 home runs came in this series. She added a double to complete a .700 slugging weekend. FIU pitching produced 13 Miners strikeouts, while the Panthers only struck out five times, but the five home runs allowed in the series produced eight UTEP runs in the three games.
 
This will be the first meeting between the schools on a neutral field. UTEP is 6-0 against the Panthers in the all-time series. After failing to qualify for the tournament last season, FIU lost its only C-USA tournament game to date, a 5-1 result against East Carolina, played at Florida Atlantic on May 8, 2014.
 
The league will provide a video stream of all tournament games on the Conference USA Digital Network.

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About FIU Athletics: FIU Athletics is home to more than 400 student-athletes in 18 different sports, and is a proud member of Conference USA. Athletic events are played in seven different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including FIU Arena and the FIU Football Stadium.
 
About FIU: Florida International University is recognized as a Carnegie engaged university. It is a public research university with colleges and schools that offers more than 180 bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida's anchor institutions, FIU contributes $9.8 billion each year to the local economy. FIU is Worlds Ahead in finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission. FIU has awarded over 200,000 degrees and enrolls more than 54,000 students in two campuses and three centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell, FIU@I-75, and the Miami Beach Urban Studios. FIU also supports artistic and cultural engagement through its three museums: the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, the Wolfsonian-FIU, and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. FIU is a member of Conference USA and has over 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.